Three years is a very short time to be a pastor. It takes about three years just to get to know a community and the individuals that make up that faith family. It takes some time to understand the history and identity of a place. In addition, it takes some time for the community to get to know and be comfortable with a pastor. Each priest has his own unique style.
When I arrived at St. John the Baptist, we were just emerging from Covid. We were still masked and keeping our social distances. We were slowly coming back to in-person participation at Mass and rebuilding many of the parish programs that suffered under Covid. We also were able to take a bit of a breather from the heroic efforts to maintain the parish during the pandemic.
Having spent three years with you, we were ready to take off implementing the new parish priorities that originated from our parish experience of the synod. Some of that will continue but now there will be new needs as you begin to form a parish family with Holy Spirit in Kent. This parish will bring its vision to that process as well as receive Holy Spirit’s vision for being Church. It should be an exciting adventure.
In the big scheme of things, my three years with you may have served as a transition time between the long pastorate of Fr. Jim Coyne and this new phase of first sharing a pastor with Holy Spirit, Kent and then becoming one parish over the next three years. I hope you are in a better position to do that now.
This is meant to be a slow process. The first year is just getting to know one another. I appreciate the three years I had to do that. I look forward to hearing how you form this new parish family. You will be in my thoughts and prayers.